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Friday, March 18, 2011

Morning Glory

If you're a regular blog reader, you know my movie reviews are usually about six months late. I've been too tired to drag my rump to a theater, and nothing really motivates me to get there these days. Movie viewing has been relegated to On Demand or DVD.

I watched "Morning Glory" late last week. Rachel McAdams plays the executive producer of a fourth place network morning broadcast. Morale is shot. The equipment and facilities are awful. Anchor Diane Keaton has seen better days. Anchor Harrison Ford doesn't want to be there. Their broadcast is on the brink of cancellation.

McAdams' character is in over her head, but she eventually pulls it together and manages to establish a relationship in the process.

"Morning Glory" isn't a great movie, but it is entertaining. Sixty per cent of the TV related stuff is believeable, which is a high number for movies about television.

Special note should be made of Jeff Goldblum, who plays Jerry Barnes, the head of the network news division, and John Pankow, in the role of a producer. Both are very good and help hold the movie together.

Rachel McAdams does a really good job with the script. I could buy her as an executive producer. I've seen that type many times. Their life is a crossroads. The TV job can beat them down, or they can rise above their surroundings to make it work.

The fictional morning TV show is called "Daybreak." It gave me a huge laugh because I once worked on a train wreck of a broadcast called "Daybreak." We were fiesty with a good, hard working staff, and we had a few victories along the way. There were meny mornings that I thought our broadcast was just as good, if not better, than the other guys. Unfortunately, we had a tough time getting people to flip the dial.

"Morning Glory" wasn't a huge hit at the box office, but I have a feeling it will do great on video. It's that kind of a movie-- light, breezy, a good movie to watch with a friend and a pizza.